Sunday, September 25, 2016

This Gospel is pretty clear in what it tells us about God’s expectations about how we respond to the needs of those who are poor and suffering.The question of how we care for the poorest and neediest – for all the Lazaruses around us – has a pretty wide application. Our parish St. Vincent de Paul group is sponsoring a food drive, for example. Obvious application.And in terms of those who are poor and abandoned, how can anyone with a conscience not see how this applies in the case of legal abortion? Of course I mean the unborn child, who is completely abandoned. So many treat the unborn child the way the rich man treated Lazarus – as if he didn’t even exist.

But I also mean the women and others involved. Last week, I attended an annual luncheon to benefit the Elizabeth New Life Center, in Sidney, and heard the stories of those women who are so often exploited by the abortion industry. It’s a cruel joke to use the term “choice,” because so often, women and girls are pressured, and threatened, and manipulated, into getting abortions. Thank God for the work the New Life Center, and other crisis pregnancy centers nationwide, do to help women make the choice for life, and then support those women along the way! This ministry is the exact opposite of what the Gospel describes. They are seeking out all the Lazaruses as they can, and binding up their wounds, and getting them back on their feet. But let me offer another application. Let’s talk about immigration. This is a big subject, and I’m not going to get into the details of public policy. Rather, I just want to raise the question of how this passage applies to this situation. The bishops have said, repeatedly, that it’s absolutely legitimate for countries to control their borders and for people to obey the law. But what’s also important is to have compassion and to respect every person’s dignity, including people who are illegal immigrants, who have broken the law.So, for example, the bishops have pointed out how much of this problem is driven by poverty,and that is the root cause that needs to be addressed. And they’ve pointed out that as legitimate as the goal of controlling our borders is, nonetheless, sometimes the remedies can be cruel – breaking up families, for example – and excessive. For example, one proposal has been to make any kind of assistance to illegal immigrants a crime, even providing food and shelter.You and I as citizens have a voice; as Catholics, our duty is to raise our voice for all the Lazaruses: the unborn, the unwelcome, those trapped in poverty, and all those we might rather forget about.In the prayer I offered near the beginning of Mass, we heard: “O God, who manifest your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy, bestow, we pray, your grace abundantly upon us and make those hastening to attain your promises heirs to the treasures of heaven.”Notice that: God wants to give us the “treasures of heaven” – it is for that reason that he pardons us and shows us mercy, and pours his grace -- his power to transform us – “abundantly upon us.” So far, so good.But, here’s the “but”: God sees how generous you and I are – or are not.He sees whether we go out of our way to bring others to share in his treasures. And if we don’t, we will share the fate of the rich man in the Gospel, who is not waiting to enter into life, but is waiting to enter into hell.The good news is, it’s not hard. If you want mercy, show mercy.Especially to the poorest.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

The parable Jesus told is confusing in some ways. But here's the key point: Jesus is telling us to have the right approach to money, and stuff, and material success.Let's compare the worldly way with God's way:The worldly way is to use people to gain success and money;God's way is to use money and position to gain people -- that is, for the Kingdom.One of the principles our Church teaches in the category of social justice is "the universal destination of goods." What does that mean?It means that while we may own this or that thing, ultimately, everything belongs to God; and God gave everything in Creation for all his children to enjoy.Think of a family. Dad passes out slices of pizza to everyone. He intends everyone to get some. What happens when he looks up and sees one child has three slices, and two have none?God doesn't intervene the way my father, or yours, would. But he sees, and he will hold us accountable.Now, the point is not socialism, because that just lets someone in government play god, and they make a mess of it. Rather, the point is that you and I seek to ensure every one of God's children gets a fair chance. And if no one forces us to share, that doesn't mean we can't and shouldn't do it ourselves.My pizza analogy can be misunderstood, because there is only going to be a certain amount of pizza on the table;but that doesn't mean there isn't an abundance of resources in our world.It has been fashionable for years to claim that our world is resource-poor,and that we have too many people. I'm sorry, but that is the devil talking!God never says, "I have too many children."It is a worldly mindset that says, "too many people."Remember the disciples in the Gospel, when they had all those people listening to Jesus, and they were hungry? What did the disciples say? "Send them away."But Jesus said, "you feed them yourselves." The disciples said, we can't do that! But when they did it God's way, they had more than enough, and twelve baskets of leftovers besides. Let's get back to how we approach our stuff and our plans for our lives. There is a place for budgets, for ambition, for savings and security.But the key question we might ask is...What is it all for?What will I do with my success, my advancement in my career, and whatever stuff I acquire?Jesus praised the dishonest steward for being prudent -- he used stuff to gain people.And his point is not to favor dishonesty, but to say, would that the children of lightwere doing the same, that is, to gain people for the Kingdom.If you have a house, you can welcome people.If you have a car, you can give rides.If you have money and stuff, you can give some of it away.Our St. Vincent de Paul group is organizing another food drive, which you can read about in the bulletin. They want to raise enough to donate over 5,000 items of food to the hungry. We did it before and we can do it again.

When I was a new priest, I would give a penance to children, who said they were greedy, to go home and give something away. But then I realized, they might give away something they shouldn't, so I stopped that. Still, I think it's never too early to learn the lesson of letting go of possessions.If we reach heaven, you and I won't see any of our possessions there. None of our money, or stuff, will be there. But what we will see is people. And won't it be wonderful to see all the people we helped get there, with our stuff?

Sunday, September 11, 2016

The readings are all about God’s mercy. Let me make three points.First: God’s mercy is shockingly generous.Second: God’s mercy requires a response.Third: That response is both hard – and easy.In the Gospel, we heard three parables, each about something lost: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and most precious, a lost son. Scripture scholar Brant Pitre points out something about the parables of Jesus that we may not realize: that they often contain a twist or a surprise that we may miss, because they are so familiar. So let’s take a look.In the first parable, Jesus says, “what man…would not leave the ninety-nine…and go after the lost one until he finds it?” And the answer is, no one would do that! If you leave 99 sheep unguarded, what is likely to happen? You’ll lose a lot more. It’s the same in the second parable. Who would throw a party to celebrate finding a penny? Has anyone here ever done that?Now we come to the third parable. The son’s sinfulness is extreme. He wants his father dead; he cruelly leaves and completely separates himself from his family. But the twist is in the response of the Father. He sees the son coming from “a long way off.” In other words, he was watching intently for him, day and night. Second, the Father runs—runs!—to his son. And, above all, the Father is extremely generous. Had he said, I’m glad you’re home, we’ll clean you up, but you have to prove yourself, wouldn’t that have been generous? When God gives, he always gives super-abundantly. Manna in the desert. Wine at Cana. Dying on the Cross. And so it is here.So listen up: if you find yourself doubting God’s mercy, if you wonder if God can or will forgive you, or whether he has forgiven you, stop it! I realize sometimes we have feelings we can’t control, but be clear on this: if we ask for God’s mercy, he will give it. One drop of Jesus’ blood can wash away all sin, and when you receive absolution in confession, you are bathed in God’s mercy. It’s not because we deserve it, or work for it, or are in any way worthy of it. The psalm we prayed was written by King David, after he committed rape, and adultery, and murder,and betrayal of a loyal servant, and lies to cover it all up. And God forgave him.God’s mercy is so generous that it’s shocking.

Now, second: God’s mercy requires a response. This is where so many misunderstand what mercy is. Some people have a fantasy image of Jesus, that he doesn’t care about rules, he just talked about love. Actually, he talked about hell a lot, and if you want to boil his teaching down to one commandment, it was, take up your cross. Die to ego, die to money, die to family attachment, die to sex, die to ambition, die to self. The younger son had to die to all his dreams and ego, come home. Or else, he’d have died in his sins.Part of our response is to pray mercy for others. This is really what the first reading is about. The point here is not that Moses has changed God’s mind, but rather, God is helping Moses himself to grow in mercy. God wanted Moses himself to say, oh no, God, please have mercy! A lot of us can see ourselves in the younger son – we’ve done things of which we are deeply ashamed, and it can be hard to believe God loves us. On the other hand, many of us are more like the older son. We’ve been faithful and we’re shocked by the evil things others have done. Your job is to intercede, as Moses was called to do. The older son said he was devoted; but had he prayed, every day, for the return of his lost brother? Finally, the response that mercy demands is both hard and easy. The sins we have in our lives: what keeps us from leaving them behind?If we’re out drinking too much, or visiting the dark places on the Internet, or inflicting anger on others around us, or making a god of money or work, why don’t we give these things up? Some say, it’s impossible, I just can’t. And that’s true for some. That’s why Alcoholics Anonymous exists for example. If you feel powerless, come and see me, and I’ll help you all I can.But for most of us, we just don’t want to give them up. The son didn’t come home until he became desperate. Sometimes the change we need to make is costly; sometimes it’s frightening or humiliating. But mercy requires a response.It may seem hard in one sense, but in another it’s the easiest thing in the world. Go to the Father! Go to confession! Confession can be hard in some ways, and yet, it’s the easiest thing in the world. The priest will walk you through it, and no matter what else the priest might say – he might talk too long – still, if you tell your sins and are sorry, he has to give you absolution! Every single time!God is ready to forgive. He waits for your response.

Sunday, September 04, 2016

I want to welcome everyone here, especially anyone who is visiting and perhaps is not familiar with our parish. If you’ve never been inside St. Remy Church, please come back another time for Mass, and we’ll be inside the church. Our church doors are open every day, from very early to late, and they are open for you.As many of you know, I’ve been talking a lot about the importance of each of us sharing our faith. It may seem odd, when over 90 percent of our community is Catholic; but there are still a lot of folks who need the hope of Jesus Christ, and it’s our task to share it. When we stand before the Lord, and we say, well, I thought 92% would be good enough, we better hope he agrees!But what you may not know is that for the past year or so, I’ve been working with the Pastoral Council, and our parish staff, to develop a plan for how we, as a parish, can be better oriented toward sharing our hope in Jesus Christ, and drawing others to him. And then, I listened to that bit in the first reading, where it says that the plans of mortals are uncertain, and I thought, uh-oh! But then I noticed the promise that when the Holy Spirit is involved, we have sure wisdom.Now, I want to give everyone here a task. I assume you will be at our picnic today or tomorrow; so I ask that you will be Christ’s ambassador at our festival this weekend. When you are in line, in what you say to others, in what you spend your money on, and in how you handle yourself, will you be Christ to the others who are here today and tomorrow?Of course our festival is a fundraiser, and it has been very successful in years’ past. And as a result, we are able to do a lot of good with the money we raise. In addition to helping to keep these grounds in top shape, these funds help share the faith with our children in religious education. They help the parish reach out to the homebound, the elderly and the needy in our community. And we are able to give directly to many worthy causes. So each of us has reason to be grateful for our volunteers, our festival leadership and for everyone who will take part.Still, as important as this is as a fundraiser, that’s not the only, or even the main, reason we have this picnic. Lots of parishes have festivals because they feel they have to; but I think it’s different here. We could raise the money in other ways if we needed to. There are more important reasons for our picnic, which is why we call it our “homecoming.” This is a time to come together as a family, and it is a time to welcome people to our parish. Those are the more important reasons to have our annual picnic.So that is why I’m asking you to be Christ at our picnic, so that everyone who is here, can come away from this visit with the sense, “I’ve been somewhere special; I’ve met some special people today.”I hope our beer booth folks won’t mind, but we don’t want anyone to drink too much beer. We don’t want anyone to bet or spend money they can’t afford to lose. As you enjoy yourself, and you help others enjoy themselves, please be a good neighbor to anyone else who’s here.Jesus told us to “count the cost” of being his disciple. Well, he’s given us perfect weather.We are blessed to gather with our family and friends, we have good planning and preparation. This is about as good as it gets. Being his messenger, his welcome, this weekend – not very costly.

About Me

I am the parish priest at Saint Remy Parish in Russia, Ohio, in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
What appear to be my opinions expressed herein are, in fact, my opinions, no one else's. Those in the comments belong to the commenters.